Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Three weeks ago today, Seung Cho-Hui fired over 170 shots, killing 32 people. The mainstream media have left a huge amount of unanswered questions on the table, focusing now on the question of gun control and mental illness. What we know and what they will not report or follow-up is staggering.

4) On the day of the shootings the press announced the type of guns the killer had, the fact that he had a receipt in his possession for the guns and that the serial numbers had been filed off said weapons. It’s common knowledge that filing off the serial numbers have no effect on identifying them as the pressure required to stamp these numbers leaves a signature that can be seen. The media has not looked at the almost Oswaldian connection that the receipts have. The infamous backyard photos of Lee Harvey Oswald bear a striking resemblance to this case, even down to altered serial number on Oswald’s Carcano rifle.

5) The advanced skill displayed by the shooter hasn’t even been address by the mainstream media. The “video gamer” excuse didn’t even get airtime because no one asked a simple question, “How could a person with apparently no weapons training carry out such a skilled attack?”

6) More time and energy was spent analyzing the meaning of Ismael Ax, as though it were some Kane-like “Rosebud”, than has been spent trying to understand why a major news outlet like NBC News would apologize for doing their job, reporting the news, after they were “criticized” by the victims families for airing less than 2 out of 26 minutes of footage the shooter sent to them.

7) Side stories that have arisen from this event, such as the disclosure that the NASPER database is being used to investigate citizens who have filled anti-depressant prescriptions; have fallen into the memory hole or ignored as though they never existed. What was an unexpected scoop regarding the privacy of all American citizens has turned into a non-story because the mainstream media do not wish to cover it.

8) Absolutely no research has been made into the academic careers of the shooter or his sister. What little we have seen of the shooter’s writings are juvenile at best and yet this young man was a creative writing major? What path led this ESL student into the challenging process of obtaining a BFA in Creative Writing?

9) How could the system of ensuring the safety of students at Virginia Tech fail so completely following years of warning signs that something was amiss with the shooter? This cannot be a sign of a systemic failure of the process at VaTech, something else is at work and he was allowed to stay at the behest of someone or some group.

The Fourth Estate has been asleep at the wheel for years and corporate ownership of the mainstream media has tightened the noose around the neck of any possible investigative journalistic efforts. What we are left with is a dark empty room from which no echo can even be produced.